The future of the web needs to include the past

As much as we all love cutting edge web
technologies and modern browsers running on fast hardware,
sometimes it's good to step back and remember what really makes the
web great is the fact that anyone -- using any browser running on
any hardware -- can use it. As software developer and web
evangelist John Allsopp recently put it, "the power of the Web is
in its universality."

Part of that universality means making sure everyone can access
the web. That's why standards exist; why accessibility is important
and planning for a future of non-PC devices is a smart move. But universality also means supporting older
web browsers, less capable hardware and slower internet
connections.

Allsopp's comment about universality is part of his larger
pushback against what he believes is an alarming trend --
developers leveraging the latest and greatest features of a
specific web browser at the expense of all the rest.

New tools are good and experiments help push the web forward,
but excluding those using older browsers just because your killer
design doesn't work is a mistake. So is assuming everyone has the
bandwidth to loading megabytes worth of JavaScript.

Progressive enhancement has always been the hallmark of
well-crafted websites. That means starting with the least capable
devices -- an older phone, Lynx running on Windows 95 -- and then
adding more sophisticated features based on screen size, bandwidth
and so on.

The irony of rejecting older browsers today is that it's never
been easier to support them thanks to hundreds of JavaScript shims and the collective hacking knowledge of
all the developers who have made the web what it is today (and have
probably already solved your problem somewhere along the way).

We'd hate to see anyone limiting what their site can do simply
to support older browsers, but at the same time don't just abandon
users who, for whatever reason, are still using Internet Explorer 6
or an old Nokia mobile browser.

There's a middle ground to be found and where that middle lies
will vary from site to site. Finding that middle ground is the
challenge all developers face. As Allsopp writes, "the truth is,
the challenge of universality is daunting. It is hard work. But to
me at least, paying this forward is the quid pro quo of the
enormous privilege I've been granted to work on the web.